With Microsoft saying that 110 million PCs run Windows 10, you’ve no doubt encountered a problem or two or three, either with your upgrades or with those of your colleagues, family, or friends. Of course, we’ll never see statistics on the number of folks who were coerced into installing Windows 10, which happens when Windows Update won’t work because it’s frozen on the Win10 payload. We’ll never know the number of systems that were upgraded and rolled back. But even if a tiny percentage of those 100 million machines hit hiccups, the total number of problems is enormous.

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Random Access Memory (RAM) wears out over time. If your PC frequently freezes, reboots, or brings up a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death), bad RAM just might be the problem. Corrupt files can be another sign of bad RAM, especially when the corruption is found in files that you’ve used recently. Another possible symptom: The PC slows down considerably as you use it, but seems re-energized after a boot.

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Windows 10 has a nasty habit of reverting all the file associations back to default settings when it updates. This means that even if you specifically set certain types of files to open with certain apps, they may switch back to the Windows defaults.Continue reading →

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Like Windows 8 before it, Windows 10 uses a hybrid boot to enable fast boot times. When you shut the system down, apps and app processes are terminated, but the Windows kernel itself is hibernated to allow for a faster restart. In theory, it’s great, but it seems to still be very slow for some Windows 10 users.

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We’re not a fan of some of the data-sharing defaults in Windows 10, and we’d recommend all users review them periodically. Use the Start Menu to search for and run the Settings app, then click Privacy. In the left-hand pane, you’ll see many areas where your computer might be sharing data. It’s worth spending time checking that you’re comfortable with allowing apps to use your computer’s camera, microphone, account information and so on, and where you are, checking that no surprise apps appear in the lists. Note, too, that the default Feedback & diagnostics setting is to send enhanced data to Microsoft.